Everyone’s best interests

In this article from Golf Course Industry, Davey Resource Group talks about its collaborative work at Lost Nation Golf Course in Willoughby, Ohio.

Published: Sept. 3, 2014

By Golf Course Industry Staff

The superintendent and general manager lead a five-hole tour of their municipal golf course on a sweltering July afternoon. Gently, they stop their carts along the right side of a fairway. They watch a foursome tee off. They gaze at a floodplain between the fairway and tee.

Following their lead are a biologist, project manager and environmentalist. The convoy pauses between shots, admiring the scene on the 13th hole at Lost Nation Golf Course in Willoughby, Ohio, 21 miles from downtown Cleveland and one mile from Lake Erie.

A clear creek with level banks meanders through the hole. Everybody in the group stares at the creek and the surrounding vegetation. The creek’s past and future, along with the federal grant and collaborative work required to cultivate this serene appearance, spark personal stories.

For Lost Nation general manager Mitch Allen, it’s about fewer floods and an enhanced look, two necessities for operating a facility with a limited budget in a competitive golf market. For superintendent Greg Hill, it’s about maintaining less turf in an area that receives little play and maintaining drier turf in areas golfers roam.

For Davey Resource Group senior biologist Ken Christensen, it’s about native plants and creating a wildlife friendly environment easy on a golfer’s eye. For Davey’s Ana Burns, a biologist who served as a project manager, it’s about the organization required to complete a major golf course stream restoration project.